MB Lab Technology

Software — mbvision

MB Lab Vision

Measuring with a camera, driven like an instrument.

Early release 0.11.0 mbvision — command line and desktop app

What it does

Distances, angles and edge-to-edge calipers; counting and shape recognition; tracing an outline to SVG or DXF; reading barcodes, matrix codes and printed text; following a moving object; stitching overlapping pictures into one; depth maps. From a camera, a still or a video file - by hand in the window, from the command line, or over SCPI from a sequencer, a workbook or another computer.

  • Calipers, angles and edge-to-edge distances, calibrated against a known reference
  • Counting and shape recognition - including counting the parts that match a DXF or SVG drawing
  • Tracing an outline out to SVG or DXF, so a measured part becomes a drawing
  • Barcodes, data matrix codes and printed text, through ZXing and the recogniser built into Windows
  • Motion targeting, two-camera triangulation and depth maps
  • Stitching overlapping pictures into one larger image
  • Answers SCPI three ways - TCP 5027, a serial port and an HTTP bridge on 5028 - the same profile AOI Inspector follows, so one sequencer drives both
  • Sends SCPI outwards too, over a serial port or a socket, so a verdict reaches an Arduino, a PLC or an instrument as a templated PASS, FAIL or ERROR message
  • Takes a barcode or DataMatrix scanner on serial or TCP - the scanned code becomes the part's serial number, and a scanned line beginning with : or * is obeyed as a SCPI command
  • Writes a CSV log after every count, and can push results straight into a named worksheet
Eight shapes found, outlined and numbered, with the classifier's filters on the right: count only circles, or only hexagons, or only what falls between an area and a circularity. Circularity is 1 for a perfect circle, which is how a washer is told from a nut without measuring either.
Eight shapes found, outlined and numbered, with the classifier's filters on the right: count only circles, or only hexagons, or only what falls between an area and a circularity. Circularity is 1 for a perfect circle, which is how a washer is told from a nut without measuring either.
The same detection asked for dimensions: ten objects found in 23 ms, each with its width, height and area drawn on it, and a caliper laid across one of them reading 170.88 px between the two points. Calibrate against a known length and those pixels become millimetres.
The same detection asked for dimensions: ten objects found in 23 ms, each with its width, height and area drawn on it, and a caliper laid across one of them reading 170.88 px between the two points. Calibrate against a known length and those pixels become millimetres.
Four code formats read off one picture in a single pass - a QR code, a Data Matrix, a Code 128 barcode and an EAN-13 - each located, decoded and listed with its position, so a part's serial number and its label can be checked against each other.
Four code formats read off one picture in a single pass - a QR code, a Data Matrix, a Code 128 barcode and an EAN-13 - each located, decoded and listed with its position, so a part's serial number and its label can be checked against each other.

Worth knowingVersion 0.11.0, and deliberately not 1.0: every feature in the specification is built and passes its tests, but it has not yet been put in front of real hardware, and the package is not code-signed. Its README has a section saying exactly what has and has not been proved.

On video

One recording of it actually running.

A screenshot of a program that moves is only half of it, so here it is moving. Recorded off the screen while it ran on this bench - its own window, its own example project, nothing staged. The file dialog's folder list and path, which belong to this machine, are blurred; nothing else is altered. Nothing plays until you press it.

31 s Two jobs in one window. First a tray of parts: Detect finds ten objects, boxes each one and fills the table with its shape, position, area, perimeter and length - ten counted in 38 milliseconds. Then an image of four codes: a QR, a Data Matrix, a Code 128 and an EAN-13, each highlighted where it was found and decoded in the panel beside it.

Get in touch

MB Lab Vision is not a download. It is one of the tools the work is done with, installed and licensed when an engagement starts. Tell me what you are working on and I will tell you what it would do for it.

Or email mblab.technology@gmail.com. Your details are used to answer you and to follow up — nothing else.

Requirements

  • Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
  • About 200 MB of disk
  • No .NET install needed — the runtime is bundled
  • No Excel needed — workbooks are written directly

Also in the set

PCB Test AnalysisWill this board be testable before you cut the fixture?EMC Design CompatibilityFind the emissions failure on your bench, not in a rented chamber.Validation TestingHow many samples, which tests, how long, how much.